The Curse of Raven
by xXKougarXx
Summary: The woman with no memory who fell from the sky...with brilliant golden eyes and a curse that has a mind of its own. Join her as she searches for answers, fighting through darkness, meeting up with strange allies as she journeys to the strange primitive island where darkness looms and demons who seems to know her better than she knows herself.**Will post more chapters if requested**


Chapter 1 – The Awakening

The brutal throbbing in her head was the first thing she felt as she slowly opened her eyes. The sun was setting and the woman could only make out blurry shapes of a grassy field and the red sky as she tried to sit up. She flinched as a searing pain shot through her back and fell back down onto the grass.  
_Where am I? ... More importantly... Who am I?_ she thought. She examined her clothing, which was nothing much more than black torn robes with spots of what could be dried blood on it. She then felt the rest of her features to see if it could trigger some sort of memory, anything that could give her a clue as to who she was.  
_Ok, I have long black hair, torn black clothes_... still exhausted and drenched from the pain in her head and back, she fell back into unconsciousness. As she went back under she thought she could hear the croak of a strange crow in the distance...  
The woman awoke again in a cold sweat, but not in the same place that she was before. She was lying in a bed and as she tried to clear the blurry vision out of her eyes, she heard a creak in the floorboard. She quickly sat up and her right hand went up over her right shoulder as if to reach for a sword. She of course didn't have one, and in return for her quick reflex she received a pang of sharp pain in her upper back. The sound came from a man, who put his hands up.  
"It's ok! I'm the one who carried you here, I'm not going to hurt you." he was only but a poor man in his middle ages with thinning brown hair and brown eyes. He took a long hard look at her, studying her. The woman blushed, embarrassed at her incomprehensible reaction to reach for a sword.  
"You're not human, but you're not an elf either because you have no elf features... You have an unearthly glow to you... And those eyes..." The man's sentence trailed off as he continued to stare at her. The injured woman took a cracked bedside mirror and took a look at herself. Her eyes were a bright shade golden yellow that looked strong, wise and older then she could ever begin to comprehend. Her face was well defined and sculpted and she had long untidy wavy black hair. She seemed to be the age of a young adult, but her eyes seemed to tell another story. She had undeniable beauty even under the caked dirt and blood.  
The man then quickly snapped out of his gaze.  
"You need to rest, you have large gashes on your back." he chuckled to himself and said, "If I didn't know any better, you seem to follow all the stories of a fallen angel. I find you, a beautiful young woman lying unconscious with two perfectly symmetrical wounds on your back where wings could've been. .." His voice trailed again, his mind trailing in a memory the woman imagined his childhood, and then he quickly moved to the window peering outside looking a bit anxious as if expecting company.  
The woman felt even more confused than when she first woke up. _Symmetrical wounds? Golden eyes? No memory?_ However, she couldn't take advantage of the poor man's hospitality any more. Her wounds were roughly dressed and although it pained her to move, she needed to search for answers even if she didn't know where to begin finding them. She then had an unnaturally comforting feeling swoon over her that despite her circumstances, she knew that she would be guided by divine grace to her answers. Then she quickly wondered what that feeling was all about, and then shook her head. One question at a time be patient she told herself.  
She sat up painfully and motioned towards the door when the man tried to stop her.  
"You s-shouldn't go out there, you aren't well and-!"  
"-I thank you for your hospitality," she interjected, "but I need answers and my wounds are fine." the dark haired woman replied with a polite smile.  
"No you mustn't! I'm not the only p-" She opened the door to outside only to find heavy clouds hovering in the sky. She sighed, but it was then that she saw a group of people coming from the far right corner of her eye. Loud and carrying torches, they were heading her way.  
"Are they the townspeople? They look like they're a mob..." she murmured to herself and to the man, close behind her with a hand grabbing her by the elbow trying to redirect her inside the shack. The mob was clearly coming closer towards them, and a muscled man in front of the mob pointed directly at the fair-faced woman and yelled;  
"There she is, the woman who fell from the sky! She's the witch with black hair and robes, we must destroy her!" taken aback, the woman backed a few steps away but then cried in pain and slumped to the ground. The two gashes in her back burned and her head throbbed with pain so intensely that she couldn't get up. _What is wrong with me? What is my name? What kind of mad life had I been leading?_ thoughts and questions ravaged her continuously throbbing head.  
The mob reached her and they grabbed her by her underarms and started dragging her away, chanting and yelling as a deep rumble of thunder sounded in the distance. They were holding up their torches chanting; "Burn the eagle-eyed witch!" As they marched with the helpless wounded woman, the middle aged man caught up to the front of the angry mob.  
"She means no harm! She's not a witch!" he yelled.  
"Then what is she then old man Henson?" the muscled man leading the mob mused, "Let me guess she's an angel?"  
"Precisely!" he claimed.  
The mob including the tall one laughed in unison.  
He then stepped forward towards Henson, getting up close to his face.  
"Out of the way old man, before I make one through you." he said smirking. He towered over the man by a foot, and his impatient face and broad muscles were intimidating to the weak aging man.  
"I know you are wrong! Your father will not be impressed to see you jumping to conclusions before -"  
"- I have enough reason to burn her for being a witch because she appeared out of nowhere. We've had too many children go missing and suspicious deaths to not suspect her! Now if you don't step aside, I will have reason to believe you are possessed by the witch and we'll have to execute you as well!"  
The peasant man stood his ground and turned his words towards the rest of the mob.  
"People, you must listen to me! She isn't a witch; she fell from the sky because she's an angel! Surely you can see-mmph!" The arrogant man lost his patience and stabbed the Henson with his long sword. The woman cried out in outrage and it ended in a cry of pain. Her back wounds were hurting more and more with each passing moment.  
The man withdrew his sword from the man's chest and with a sickening last cry, the middle-aged man crumpled to the ground.  
The tall man then turned around towards the black-haired woman and used the tip of his bloody sword to lift up her chin. Her eyes full of tears, she looked into his cold black eyes.  
"Yes, my fair witch. I want you to suffer as much as possible before you burn. You have no minions to help you hide now!" He laughed cruelly along with some of the mob. They then continued their march, chanting "Burn the witch!" as they went as the clapping thunder clouds came closer and closer.  
The helpless wounded woman let them drag her along and as they were taking her to her fate, the only thing she could think about was the man. She wasn't even fearing for her life, nor was she wondering who she was or what she was anymore. The man was kind enough to care for her wounds even though he didn't know her and he stepped in front of the mob and defended her until he was brutally murdered. The tall man is vile and heartless for murdering him for no reason but to satisfy his ego and his sword's thirst for blood. She didn't even have the time to learn more about who Henson was as a man.  
They hung the distraught woman by her wrists and ankles upon a large pole over a pile of wood ready to burn. The large man turned towards the crowd holding his torch.  
"This woman has been found guilty of sorcery by using magic to cause havoc in our village and possessing one of our townsmen. Those people convicted of evil sorcery shall be burned at the stake until she is nothing more than ashes!" he smiled as he shouted this and the mob replied, "Burn her!"  
A torch was lowered to the pile of wood, and a patch was set aflame. The flames spread all around, quickly creating a ring of fire, slowly but surely enveloping its way towards the convicted witch. The woman could only look down and try to struggle out of her bonds, pulling and trying to feel for the knot to untie herself, but to no avail. The embers were starting to close in on her ankles and she started to feel the heat stinging her pale skin. The crowd was cheering with immense passion like animals as they threw their torches to add to the growing fire.  
It was at that crucial moment when the woman saw there was no way out but by death that she began to feel something no human would survive.  
She screamed in intense searing agony so painful that she nearly blacked out but managed to stay conscious. She realized the pain wasn't coming from the fire. The pain felt like hundreds of knives were tearing through the fragile muscles and skin of her back. As she was suffering, she finally noticed an absence of sound that made her look up. The crowd that was going wild and animalistic wasn't anymore. All their faces were stricken by horror, some screaming and running for their lives, some stood frozen in fear, mouths agape, but one tall man stayed and looked back at her as his face contorted in anger and hate.  
"And the Witch shows her true form!" he snarled. He drew out his long sword and pointed it towards the woman. "You will die by my sword before you slaughter my people! Come at me witch, I dare you lay one finger on me! For my - arg!"  
The woman finally gave into the darkness that appeared to oblige her. As her vision blurred, she felt a warm glow of light as the bonds fell to her feet and felt a great sense that she was a bird free of her cage flying away...


End file.
